Anyone notice the clipping on Red Hot Chili Peppers "Californicatoin"?
- Thread starter flood
- Start date
YES!!! Thank God it's not just me. It makes those songs sound crappy... especially in my car.
I haven't seen any other talk about this though. You?
l2c
I haven't seen any other talk about this though. You?
l2c
yllus
Elite Member & Lifer
- Aug 20, 2000
- 20,577
- 432
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Strange coincidence. I had that MP3 playing just as I happened on this post. Interesting... 
Well, I'm no expert or even an audiophile, but couldn't you fix this problem by normalizing the volume on the track a bit lower, say to 98%? Most CD to MP3 rippers have this option and let you perform the normalizing without any ripping being done.
A member named divinemartyr right here on AT has a helpful page with this kind of info, see: r3mix.net.
Well, I'm no expert or even an audiophile, but couldn't you fix this problem by normalizing the volume on the track a bit lower, say to 98%? Most CD to MP3 rippers have this option and let you perform the normalizing without any ripping being done.
A member named divinemartyr right here on AT has a helpful page with this kind of info, see: r3mix.net.
- Oct 17, 1999
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<Well, I'm no expert or even an audiophile, but couldn't you fix this problem by normalizing the volume on the track a bit lower, say to 98%? Most CD to MP3 rippers have this option and let you perform the normalizing without any ripping being done.>
Nope. The clipping occured in the recording phase. Its there to stay. I hate the thought of what its doing to my sennheisers. I *think* its a mike problem because it happens only in the vocals. I've been listening to it through my stereo:
Cambridge Audio D500 Cd Player
Musical Fidelity X-Cans Tube Headphone amp
Sennheiser HD-580
normalizing the volume to 98% after ripping it to your hard drive would only decrease the overall volume by 2%. The clipping would still be there because its in th original recording. It would be a little quiter tho, but so would the overall music, so it wouldnt help.
Nope. The clipping occured in the recording phase. Its there to stay. I hate the thought of what its doing to my sennheisers. I *think* its a mike problem because it happens only in the vocals. I've been listening to it through my stereo:
Cambridge Audio D500 Cd Player
Musical Fidelity X-Cans Tube Headphone amp
Sennheiser HD-580
normalizing the volume to 98% after ripping it to your hard drive would only decrease the overall volume by 2%. The clipping would still be there because its in th original recording. It would be a little quiter tho, but so would the overall music, so it wouldnt help.
Hmmm. Weird. I always noticed the clipping, but I had only listened to the song in MP3 form. I always thought it was a bad rip. I guess not. It's on the original CD huh? Weirdnewss.
Ricky
DesignDawg
Ricky
DesignDawg
<< A member named divinemartyr right here on AT has a helpful page with this kind of info, see: r3mix.net. >>
Hey I know it's off topic now since the original recording contains the clipping, but I'm becoming famous! They like me, they really like me! =) Thanks 0sully for noticing my information. I always try to provide something useful to a discussion and this is something I've always been really interested in.
dm
Just thought of one thing, has anyone listened to the vinyl version of Californication? The vinyl version is often mixed separately from the CD version so just a thought. The clipping might not be on the original master.
dm
dm
Actually not necessarily. With a good turntable and a decent encoder which can remove pops and clicks, you'd have a near CD sound quality mp3, which you could later burn to cd =)
It would be a lot of work, but if RHCP was my favorite group I'd certainly look into it. =)
Some audiophiles claim vinyl is a superior format to cd's but I disagree. I do agree that vinyl is far superior to cassette in terms of SQ though.
dm
It would be a lot of work, but if RHCP was my favorite group I'd certainly look into it. =)
Some audiophiles claim vinyl is a superior format to cd's but I disagree. I do agree that vinyl is far superior to cassette in terms of SQ though.
dm
divinemartyr -- << you'd have a near CD sound quality mp3, which you could later burn to cd =) >>
Nothing personal (honestly), but you obviously have no techincal training in audio electronics or acoustics, and I'm afraid your hearing is damaged from listening at high volume levels.
CD's are very quiet when there is no signal. If you knew anything about what live music and good recording was about, you would know that they just sound terrible as a recording medium for music. If they could only do as good a job of making sound as they do for quiet, they might have a respectable product.
The problem is that the kinds of distortion inherent in linear PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) is inversely proprotional to amplitude and non-harmonic in nature. Unlike any naturally occurring sound source, the distorion gets worse as the signal gets softer, and the distortion products are out of tune with the music source. These characteristics are not only un-musical, they are actually anti-musical. That is, even at very subtle levels, they work against the subjective enjoyment of the music. It probably also explains why such artifacts are not noticed in hightly synthed, distorted, atonal rhythmic drivel like rap and hiphop.
<< Some audiophiles claim vinyl is a superior format to cd's but I disagree. >>
"CD quality" is an pejorative (insult), not a compliment. Near CD quality is even worse. :Q
Analog recording systems (vinyl, tape, etc) are not flawless. However, unlike digital recording, their distortion products are typically harmonic in nature and rise with amplitude. At low levels, the distortion products do change the sound, but in the hands of a skilled recordist, the end result is musical because the added information is in tune with the music, and like your ears, it distorts as it approaches its maximum loudness.
There is lots more to say on this. One of us would have to do a search for any of my previous long posts on the subject, which I don't have time to recreate, right now. Since I already know about it, if you're really interested in how audio and music work, I suggest you do your homework.
Nothing personal (honestly), but you obviously have no techincal training in audio electronics or acoustics, and I'm afraid your hearing is damaged from listening at high volume levels.
CD's are very quiet when there is no signal. If you knew anything about what live music and good recording was about, you would know that they just sound terrible as a recording medium for music. If they could only do as good a job of making sound as they do for quiet, they might have a respectable product.
The problem is that the kinds of distortion inherent in linear PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) is inversely proprotional to amplitude and non-harmonic in nature. Unlike any naturally occurring sound source, the distorion gets worse as the signal gets softer, and the distortion products are out of tune with the music source. These characteristics are not only un-musical, they are actually anti-musical. That is, even at very subtle levels, they work against the subjective enjoyment of the music. It probably also explains why such artifacts are not noticed in hightly synthed, distorted, atonal rhythmic drivel like rap and hiphop.
<< Some audiophiles claim vinyl is a superior format to cd's but I disagree. >>
"CD quality" is an pejorative (insult), not a compliment. Near CD quality is even worse. :Q
Analog recording systems (vinyl, tape, etc) are not flawless. However, unlike digital recording, their distortion products are typically harmonic in nature and rise with amplitude. At low levels, the distortion products do change the sound, but in the hands of a skilled recordist, the end result is musical because the added information is in tune with the music, and like your ears, it distorts as it approaches its maximum loudness.
There is lots more to say on this. One of us would have to do a search for any of my previous long posts on the subject, which I don't have time to recreate, right now. Since I already know about it, if you're really interested in how audio and music work, I suggest you do your homework.
Harvey, I've heard people talk about special quality of something called gold CDs (and I don't mean gold CD recordables). Can you explain the difference between a gold and an ordinary CD?
- Oct 17, 1999
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<uh oh, flood, you are opening up a can of worms when it comes to vinyl versus cd... >
hehe
CDs are soo much better. The sound is so crisp and clean in my system, especially since i got the tube amp. The only snap crackle and pop around here is from my rice crispies.
Harvey-
Perhaps the ultimate recording media will be both digital and analog - analog for the quiet parts...
I've always wondered if records could be read with lasers. Then it wouldnt wear down the record with use.
thEnEuRoMancER-
Some of my cds are "gold" cds. They are all diigtally remastered at 24bit and are gold plated. The gold doesnt really do anything. Its the 24bit remastering that makes it sound better.
divinemartyr-
Nice web page. :-]
hehe
CDs are soo much better. The sound is so crisp and clean in my system, especially since i got the tube amp. The only snap crackle and pop around here is from my rice crispies.
Harvey-
Perhaps the ultimate recording media will be both digital and analog - analog for the quiet parts...
I've always wondered if records could be read with lasers. Then it wouldnt wear down the record with use.
thEnEuRoMancER-
Some of my cds are "gold" cds. They are all diigtally remastered at 24bit and are gold plated. The gold doesnt really do anything. Its the 24bit remastering that makes it sound better.
divinemartyr-
Nice web page. :-]
flood5 -- There have been attempts to read vinyl disks with lasers with varying degrees of success, but I have not heard any great reports about their performance, and of course, they were expensive.
There is a brighter future. The highest standard for the new audio only DVD disks is two channels of 24 bit audio @ 192 KHz with no lossy compression. With that much data, it will once again make a difference that I can design a good analog audio path.
Lossless compression is like PKZIP. You get all your data back in its original form. With lossy, such as MP-3, compression, a computer removes data it "thinks" you can't hear from the data stream to reduce the size of the stored/transmitted file. I have listened to many lossy systems, and those computers should think again! :Q
There is a brighter future. The highest standard for the new audio only DVD disks is two channels of 24 bit audio @ 192 KHz with no lossy compression. With that much data, it will once again make a difference that I can design a good analog audio path.
Lossless compression is like PKZIP. You get all your data back in its original form. With lossy, such as MP-3, compression, a computer removes data it "thinks" you can't hear from the data stream to reduce the size of the stored/transmitted file. I have listened to many lossy systems, and those computers should think again! :Q
You can remove clipping with Cool Edit 2000 from Syntrillium and their audio cleanup plugin, but that's EXPENSIVE! :Q I'll do it for you if you can get a really good copy to me. (RARed wav or 320kbit MP3)
Clipping occurs when the audio signal coming in to the recorder is stronger than the recorder can measure, so instead of a nice, curved waveform, you hit the recorder's limit and end up with a plateu-looking waveform, like a curve with the end smashed flat. The sound data during that flat clip is lost, it has to be extrapolated.
PM me if you really want it fixed.
Clipping occurs when the audio signal coming in to the recorder is stronger than the recorder can measure, so instead of a nice, curved waveform, you hit the recorder's limit and end up with a plateu-looking waveform, like a curve with the end smashed flat. The sound data during that flat clip is lost, it has to be extrapolated.
PM me if you really want it fixed.
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